Trivia / Kirby Super Star

• Acclaimed Flop: Kirby Super Star was received very well around the world and is considered to be one of the best games in the series and in the entire SNES library. However, despite selling over a million copies in Japan, international sales were hampered by the proximity of its release to that of the Nintendo 64 (9 days beforehand in North America and just over a month beforehand in Europe).
• Creator Backlash: Sakurai's video on the production of Kirby Super Star has him admit that he doesn't think the CG-created backgrounds were the team's best work, being unfamiliar with the style, and wasn't a fit for Kirby. He also wanted Spring Breeze to have no copy abilities like the original game, but Executive Meddling caused him to put them in; he regrets this, as he believes it makes Spring Breeze feel redundant to Dyna Blade as the introductory game.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: Nintendo Power magazine had a walkthrough which had descriptions for the copy abilities; "Ninja" was listed twice with the duplicate actually being a description for "Fighter".
• Creator-Driven Successor: Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai developed both this game and Super Smash Bros., which features a near-identical system for attacking. In fact, The Subspace Emissary from Super Smash Bros. Brawl can be summed up as "Kirby Super Star in 3D, but you have to fall off the screen to die".
• Descended Creator:
  • Director and series creator Masahiro Sakurai voices Mike Kirby's "CHESTO" shout (used for the third and final use of Mike). The second shout was done by one of HAL Laboratory's interns at the time.
  • In Kirby Super Star Ultra, director Shinya Kumazaki does the "CHESTO" shout, and also voices King Dedede, taking over for Sakurai in both cases.
• Executive Meddling: Ultra was originally intended to be a straightforward remake of the SNES version, but was expanded in scope at the request of HAL Laboratory president Masayoshi Tanimura. This move ended up benefitting the game and the series, as it permitted director Shinya Kumazaki to lay the groundwork for his style as the franchise's general director.
• First Appearance:
  • While he wouldn't become a prominent character until the remake, the original game marks the first appearance of Bandana Waddle Dee. Marx would make his debut as well.
  • Ultra marks the first appearance of Galacta Knight.
• Market-Based Title: The original Japanese version was titled Hoshi no Kirby Super Deluxe, the North American version Kirby Super Star, and the European and Australian one Kirby's Fun Pak. The remake was released as Kirby Super Star Ultra in English (even in Europe and Australia) and Hoshi no Kirby Ultra Super Deluxe in Japanese.
• Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": A Mr. Saturn is one of the treasures in The Great Cave Offensive, making this game the first appearance of anything EarthBound (1994)-related in Europe. Similarly, and relating to the trope namer, Marth's Falchion is also a collectible treasure, making it the first appearance of anything Fire Emblem-related outside of Japan. The English localization of the SNES game gives it the generic name "Sword", but Ultra properly refers to it as Falchion.
• The Other Darrin: King Dedede is voiced by Shinya Kumazaki in the Ultra remake, taking over for Masahiro Sakurai (who voices him in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and Super Smash Bros. Brawl). Kumazaki continues to voice Dedede in the main Kirby series, while Sakurai still voices him in the Super Smash Bros. series.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sakurai revealed on the wake of the Super NES Classic Edition release that there were going to be seven games plus one in the initial proposal. It was called "Kagero Mansion" ("kagero" roughly translating to "heat haze"), and it was a Survival Horror-type game very different from the others: Kirby was trapped in a Haunted House and his mouth was cursed shut, so he needed to get Copy Abilities through other ways (e.g. Fire from a candle). Sakurai was planning it as an horror-action game with puzzle elements. Unfortunately, he never even got started on making it, as his hands were full with the other games. More unfortunately, it even didn't make its way into Kirby Super Star Ultra.
  • Additionally, he revealed in the same interview that the game had its original sprite-work scrapped midway through development because it was decided to use the computer graphics of Donkey Kong Country as an artistic influence, costing much time to incorporate and being part of the reason for the late release.
  • There were several copy abilities conceptualized during development that were eventually scrapped. This includes Tomosama (feudal lord), Satellite, Summon, Mantle, and Flower, the last one also doubling as a Shout-Out to the Panel de Pon character Lip. Some abilities like Grenade and Rush were retooled into Bomb and Fighter respectively, while Card and Donate were eventually retooled in future games as Magic in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror and to an extent Doctor in Kirby: Planet Robobot respectively. While Flower itself never appeared in a Kirby game, the concept of having a flower drain the opponent's health would be retooled in the Super Smash Bros. series for the recurring Lip's Stick item.
  • According to Sakurai in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Sephiroth presentation stream, Marx's final boss form was originally meant to be creepier, only for the creepiness to be toned down so it can be suitable for all audiences. It's unclear if he was referring to the original game or the Ultimate appearance, however.
  • Sakurai's video on the production of Kirby Super Star reveals that he initially intended on the Spring Breeze mode to not have Copy Abilities period, which would've made it play similar to the game it was based off of, and make it more distinct from the rest of the modes. One of the producers requested that Copy Abilities stayed in.
• Working Title: Ultra was originally developed under the name Kirby Super Deluxe Plus.

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